Nottingham Casuals 24 Lincoln 17

Casuals hang on for win, and 5 league points

Another bonus point win for Casuals, but not before Lincoln haul back 17 points.

Casuals built up a lead of 17 points against the wind, adding another converted try just after ½ time, but after that Lincoln fought back, to give Casuals a bit of a tough time.

Casuals opened the scoring fairly early with a penalty from Mark Higgins, and this was followed up with a try from hooker Jack Weedon, on 4 minutes, when Casuals rumbled a maul over the line, following a lineout.

This was followed up with a try from Gareth Davies-Jones, from another maul following a lineout, (his first score in about 18 months). Making it 13 points to nil.

Lincoln came back into it following a kick ahead from Casuals, the attacker went through the middle, only just hauled back by a last ditch tackle by Chris Brownlie, hanging onto the Lincoln man’s shirt tails.
Casuals came back upfield, when Lincoln were penalised, they lost their No 8 to a yellow card , because of a tip tackle.
Casuals gained huge ground from that.
They were penalised for being offside, but the referee reversed the penalty because of back chat, and Casuals made the best of the opportunity.

Graeme Roberts made a great break, then Matt Fox was held up over the try line.
Casuals then attacked form the base of the scum, but unfortunately that move was stopped.
On 21 minutes Casuals shoved Lincoln off their own put in at the scrum, and from that Casuals were awarded a
5 metre scrum and as the pack went forward over the try line, Stu Williams dropped on the ball, but he was denied the score, as the referee decided to award a penalty try instead, for 7 more points.

The score stayed at 17 to nil until ½ time.

Not long after the restart, Casuals won great ball from the lineout, and Steve Naylor came off his wing, cut through and he fed Brodie Howatson, who finished off the move with the touchdown, Higgins adding the conversion to make it 24 - nil.

Unfortunately Lincoln then made the best of a poor Casuals’ lineout, and they conceded a sloppy converted try to Lincoln. 24 – 7

At this point players seemed to rile the referee, and the game got a bit strange.
Casuals conceded quite a number of penalties, which helped Lincoln gain ground.

Lincoln then were awarded a try, when it looked as if the ball had been lost forward, and bounced away, but the refs word is final, so Casuals had to get on with it. 24 -12

Casuals then conceded more ground as the referee marched Casuals back, 30 metres or so for complaining.
The ref then warned Casuals captain, calling for the vice captain, not the first time the ref had called players aside and lectured them, setting the wrong mood, it seemed.
As play progressed Casuals conceded more ground to penalties.

By this time play was getting quite scrappy with the decision making, getting players from both sides wound up.

Davies-Jones was taken out quite blatantly, and yet another lecture, and more finger wagging.

Casuals were then penalised again, as Casuals were this time deemed to have pulled the maul down. Lincoln quickly moved the ball out, and they went in for the try in the corner. 24 -17.

Too close for comfort, but Casuals held out, quite happy to play time out.

One would ask, and did, how much the referee had actually communicated with the players during play, and how pro-active he was in his refereeing, not just reacting. Probably where the players were at a loss at times, as to what was actually wanted.
Little bit more empathy maybe could have helped???
After all, it was a pretty clean game.

Still a win and 5 league points.
Just the conundrum, why are Casuals conceding so many points later in the game?